


It Didn't Work

by inkedintoincognito



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Not what he seems
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-01
Updated: 2015-05-01
Packaged: 2018-03-26 15:59:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 945
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3856537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inkedintoincognito/pseuds/inkedintoincognito
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There was something wrong with Stan's construction of the portal, and when the countdown hit zero, it pulled Dipper and his sister into the space between realities.</p>
            </blockquote>





	It Didn't Work

_The portal didn’t work._

He was torn from his reality, screaming, reaching for Mabel, whose cries were high and brother-focused. He was only a few feet away, twenty at most, and he could reach her if he could get his bearings, if he wasn’t tumbling towards a bright white light growing bigger and bigger, if he could just get his feet on _something._

He could get her if she would be thrown a few feet to his left, he could get to her if she would reach a little further, because now she was reaching for him, too, and screaming his name, his real name, not the nickname she had given him when they were younger, he could get to her, if-

And then, by some miracle, a large sheet of metal rammed into his back, sending him directly at her, and yes, it hurt, and yes, he was bleeding, and yes, he had to close his eyes and a cry of pain escaped his lips, but that didn’t matter, because his hand was still out, still reaching, and her fingers caught his and they pulled towards each other, the lack of gravity causing them to bump together and send them in a different direction all together.

When he felt arms around him, hugging him close, clutching him to a body so familiar, because, yes, they hugged more often than he let on, he let out a sob.

He was going to die, but at least he was going to die in a familiar embrace.

There are worse ways to die, he supposed.

It made him slightly sick that he was willing to let his sister die with him so that he wouldn’t be scared.

He thought, for a second, he heard a scream that wasn’t his, wasn’t Mabel’s.

It sounded like Stan’s voice. Maybe Soos’s. Something low and masculine.

He ignored it.

As they hugged, Mabel’s sobs echoing through the roaring silence, somehow muffled, thoughts, unnecessary and strange, fluttered through his mind.

 _Sleeping in the moonlight at home because his bed was right under his window_ and _the time in third grade when he built the tallest marshmallow tower_ and _first grade Halloween_ and-

And he opened his eyes, for some unknown reason, and his stomach dropped.

There, over Mabel’s shoulder, was a circle: dark blue, flashing, red stars- lights- scattered throughout.

Two figures standing, one trying to pull himself into the white, the other holding him back.

It was the entrance to the portal. The exit to the lab.

It was Soos and Stan, somehow still on the outside.

It was growing smaller, collapsing, he assumed, in on itself.

Close, so, so close.

Far. So, so far.

They could get to it. If they had momentum strong enough to overpower the pull. Strong enough to carry them both.

They wouldn’t get that momentum. Not both of them.

He didn’t want to die.

But he didn’t want Mabel to die more.

And that realization opened something in his core, shot a hole through something he couldn’t name, and suddenly he was very, very lonely, and very, very scared. Because he knew what he had to do.

He twisted, fighting Mabel’s grasp, shouting in her ear to let go, that he had a plan, when she wouldn’t let him go.

And, because she trusted him, she let him go.

The sheet of metal, he knew, would have stayed right behind him.

His head was still throbbing, and drops of red hung around them, and tears were falling freely from both their eyes, but he held tightly to her hands, shifting her directly in front of him, directly in front of the portal’s entrance.

He told her he loved her. She told him she loved him.

He braced his feet against the sheet of metal, so thick, so heavy, and pushed, and they were thrown forward, against the pull, rocketing towards the entrance of the portal.

He told her he loved her once more. The hole was getting smaller.

He didn’t hear her reply, because his heartbeat was so loud in his ears. They were slowing down, just like he knew they would and hoped they wouldn’t, and the portal entrance was unnaturally close and the white pull was unnervingly strong.

He looked at her, just ahead of him, so close right now. So small. But still just big enough.

Something inside him cracked. He reached up and yanked off her headband.

And before she could ask what he was doing, he shoved.

She flew forward, a refreshed force sending her straight towards the entrance, straight towards the exit, and he rocketed backwards, back into the white.

For one horrible moment, he didn’t think she would make it. The hole was so, so small now.

Or was he just so far away?

He heard her scream, the last thing he heard, and he shouted her name just before she flew through where they had been first sucked in and he saw her drop to the ground and one of the figures knelt down next to her, no longer holding the other back and he saw him reach towards the portal and he saw Mabel stand up and he was going to vomit because they were going to jump back in-

And then, a miracle so large he could have cried, the entrance collapsed in on itself before he could climb in, before she could jump back in.

And he was alone in the white, drifting away, now, from nothing, clutching her headband, sobbing, his relief nearly overpowered by his grief.

A hat flew by him, red, black tassel floating about, and he let out a sob.

**Author's Note:**

> This was inspired by this image:  
> http://agentkelly13.tumblr.com/post/117621770960  
> Thanks for reading! :)


End file.
